Why is it important to have a loving, long-relationship with something that is brick or stone or timber - and fundamentally inanimate? Read more here to find out.

How to Have A Loving, Long-Term Live-In Relationship With a House

As I write about our deep connection to the places we live – something that is at the heart of Belong – I want to introduce you to a little book I love called the “Poetics of Space.”

It was written back in the 1950s by a Frenchman named Gaston Bachelard, and it’s a work of philosophy and reflection based on our relationship to our dwelling places.

It would be a wonderful housewarming gift for every Belong homeowner to leave on the kitchen table for a new resident.

Bachelard turns over and over in his mind the singular importance of the home, and he comes down to this profound formulation:

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protect the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

Anyone who has lived in a house for even a little while knows what that relationship, that overwhelming security of being at home when you step inside, feels like.  

I see it is not dissimilar from the relationship we have with someone we love in a physical sense.  Trust in a person give us the same confidence, the same emotional surrender, to “dream in peace.”

Why is it important to have a loving, long-relationship with something that is brick or stone or timber - and fundamentally inanimate?  Because in a threatening and scary world, we need to be in love with the roof over our heads, and everything below it.  We need a place where we can de-stress and be ourselves with a warm and welcoming glow around us.

With that goal in mind, is here is set of frameworks for house-love that I derived from what we know about successful interpersonal relationships.

Let’s start with the idea of anticipating needs, which is a way of demonstrating love.  We all know how important that is with a significant other – or even a friend; it fills us with joy to be recognized, and we feel really crappy when we are ignored.  The same is true for a home.  Don’t wait for problems to start, get ahead of them with some healthy preventative maintenance.  You don’t want your home to experience months of neglect when the coldest day of the day rolls around. And the very act of anticipating will build positive emotional connections.

Psychologists also tell us that spending time apart is important for a thriving relationship. Yes, there is truth in that ancient wisdom that absence makes the heart grow fonder; when your significant other walks through the door after a while, the dopamine sparks fly.

It’s no different, when we arrive home after a vacation, even a short one.   The familiar feels newly fresh and we appreciate it more.  But there’s no reason to limit that experience to a vacation.  Try a brain hack and consciously look at house afresh, as if you are seeing it for the first time. 

It’s actually a useful exercise in general; breaking out of our conventional observational patterns can spark creativity and imagination.

Experts also advise that a secret of a long-term successful connection is to try new things together.  A study from the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology found that couples who participated in “novel and exciting” activities reported greater relationship satisfaction.  

It’s intuitive that breaking routines creates new opportunities for appreciating your “better half.”  And the snap from “better half” to “better house” is also an intuitive one.  So to create an even more loving relationship with your house, just dive in and change things.  

That could mean re-arranging your furniture to create some new drama, or paint or wall a surprising color, or – now that the in-person gatherings are on the list again – invite some people over who’ve never met, with your house as the backdrop for provocative conversation.  Showing people around the house will deepen your connection.

Relationship gurus also consistently remind us to stay positive.  It’s obvious but not always easy to live up to, because in many ways our brains are wired for negativity, especially when there are triggers.  And houses have lots of trigger; after all, things large and small are always going wrong  - it’s the natural course of events.  

If we react to them by saying to ourselves “This place is falling apart” or “I never should have rented it” – you’ll start a cycle that is hard to extract yourself from.  Instead, you need to re-pattern yourself, stay positive, and see these temporary annoyances as way to improve your house and your relationship with it.  

Focus on all the joy your house brings you; as Darby Saxe. Ph.D. noted in Psychology Today, “…maintaining a favorable balance of positive to negative emotions helps people – and relationships – thrive.”

Lastly is what might be the most toxic emotion of all.  Couples experts continually warn us against “letting jealousy in.”   The same is true for its toxic cousin, envy. Don’t be riding up and down the block, coveting other houses and wishes you lived there.  That’s a self-sabotaging act, in any kind of relationship.

The other side of that – gratitude – is enormously uplifting and key to a life of happiness.  There’s an entire branch of psychology focused on how gratitude reduces stress, increase optimism and actually rewires your brain.

In other words, improving your relationship with your house can improve your entire life.

That’s not what you expected when you started reading this, but I hope that’s what you get out of it.

How do I rent out a property as a landlord, but live far away? Do I need a property manager or can I manage myself? We answer FAQs on owning interstate rentals

Long-Distance Landlord: How To Manage a Rental Home From Afar

Whether you had to move for work or picked up a steal of a property in another city, it’s not uncommon to live far away from a home you rent out. Even more so in 2024. With many homeowners holding onto interest rates too good to give up, renting out a home is often a better option when opportunity knocks in another city. 

This is why we get asked so often, “How do I rent out a property when I live far away?” 

Particularly if you’re considering the DIY self-management route, there’s a lot to consider before taking on the challenge from another state. It’s not impossible, but here are six questions to consider first. 

6 questions to consider before self-managing a rental home out-of-state

1. How often can I travel to my rental home? 


When preparing your home for the rental market, you will need to get it move-in ready. You’ll need to arrange a deep clean, attend to repairs and have professional photographs and video taken for your online listing. These are not remote tasks. Someone will need to be at the home to let in contractors, cleaners, and a real estate photographer.

If you travel to your rental home, be sure to keep accurate records of everything from your trip. You may be eligible to claim some costs such as airfares, hire car and petrol, even hotel accommodation as a tax expense for managing your rental home. 

If travel is too far or just not a viable option, is there someone you trust close by that you could enlist for help? This is where having a property manager or modern alternative like Belong can make the process much smoother, taking care of all preparations and listings on your behalf. If you do hire someone to manage the process, you can claim these fees at tax time too. 

Discover Belong: The best alternative to Property Management in Seattle, Redmond, Oakland, and many more cities across California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Washington State.     


When you live far away from your rental home, how you collect rent is another consideration. Checks and cash are out of the question! Thankfully, paying rent online is commonplace these days — not to mention safer. 

But before you choose an online platform, be aware that using popular peer-to-peer online payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App can leave you open to disputes and rent payment fraud. While simple and user-friendly, they are not designed for landlords or rent collection. 

There’s also the issue of late payments. Do you have the time and resources to follow up and stay on top of unpaid rent bills from out of state? Aside from the time, effort and stress, the reality is that mortgage and expenses don’t stop adding up when the rent goes unpaid.

This is why guaranteed rent is Belong’s most popular product. It’s proven and beloved by over 2,000 Belong homeowners, who receive their rental income like clockwork (no matter when the residents pay).

Read More: How Guaranteed Rent is Changing Property Management Forever

3. Who will manage home tours and inspections?


Property management is not a set-and-forget kind of job. Aside from the initial tours to lease the home, inspections can help to monitor wear and tear or damage. It’s also an opportunity to connect with your residents to make sure they’re happy and are sticking to the conditions of the lease agreement.

You could opt for video inspections if you have established a good relationship with your tenant. But if this is a new lease or you ask residents to show you around virtually, you could miss important clues to damage or repair needs on the property. 

This is another reason why many long-distance rental owners prefer to hire someone to manage the home for them. If you still want to DIY, you’ll need to enlist some local help for the role of on-site inspections. This could be a trusted friend, an employee, or a service such as Inspectify, who can arrange an inspection report on-site. 

4. How easily can I access good local contractors? 


If there’s a maintenance or repair issue in your rental home, how soon can you respond from afar? It’s an important question for out-of-state landlords, because how you resolve issues is a reflection of your professionalism and can avoid minor issues from turning into costly headaches. 

If you’re fielding maintenance requests from out of state, you will need to have fast access to good local contractors close to your rental home. This is easier said than done, with the US experiencing a major labor shortage in most trades that homeowners need. With so much work to go around, contractors are often drawn to large jobs that pay the most. This can leave rental homeowners waiting months for repairs and maintenance. 

If you don’t have good local knowledge or access to contractors, Belong can help. Our expert team will handle all resident communication and have an extensive vendor network of over 10,000 contractors for fast maintenance and repairs.

Read More: Why Ignoring Rental Home Maintenance Could Cost You More Than Repairs

5. Are local laws different from my home state?


Tenant-landlord legislation varies between states and counties. If you live in Austin, but rent out a home in Seattle, you’ll need to be up to speed with the laws that govern both the state of Washington and the local cities of Seattle. Not doing your homework could land you in hot water if you get it wrong. 

For example, the City of Seattle has unique eviction laws that prevent families from being displaced during a school year. They also have a first-in-time ordinance that you must rent your home to the first qualified applicant. 

This is just one of many varied examples. If you own a rental home in San Diego, you may be responsible for noise complaints against your residents, even while you sleep hundreds of miles away. 

Your options? Get comfortable with local laws or hire a professional to avoid navigating a confusing legal system alone and from afar. 


Have you done the math on renting out your home? If you’re looking to achieve passive income through real estate, the numbers and time commitments need to make sense. 

Consider the time you have available, travel costs, and the expense of on-site help when needed. Once you’ve considered the personal costs vs outsourcing costs, you can decide if you’ll really be saving enough by going it alone. 

If you choose to partner with Belong to look after your out-of-state rental home, you won’t have to lift a finger. Enjoy guaranteed rent and innovative financial solutions to keep you cash flow positive, the security of home insurance and expert maintenance, plus 24/7 support for you and your residents. 

What’s the difference between property management services and what Belong does? Get the down-low on property management vs Belong PRO in this article. 

Manage a long-distance rental on your own terms


Belong is simplifying the rental experience across the US and helping homeowners reach their financial goals on their own terms. See why thousands of US homeowners are ditching outdated Property Management in San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Tampa, Orlando, Salt Lake City and many more.

Disclaimer: We don’t enjoy using the word ‘landlord’. We prefer to refer to members in our network as homeowners and residents, not landlords and tenants, since we’re on a mission to upend and redefine the traditional landlord-tenant relationship. That said, this article is for homeowners taking the leap for the first time who are looking for answers with more common industry terms like ‘landlords’ and ‘tenants’, so in some instances we have had to stick to the old moniker for owners of rental homes. This article is not intended as financial advice.

Belong is welcoming 18 new cities across Florida, California, Washington, Utah, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina.

Belong Expands to 18 New Markets, Giving More Americans a Place to Belong

Our resolution for 2024? To double down on a core pillar of the American Dream and give more people a place to call home. A place to belong. Hot on the heels of our Belong PRO network expansion in Texas, Utah, and Florida, we’re ready to extend a warm southern welcome to the great states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.  

The mission of Belong is to create authentic belonging experiences, empowering residents to become homeowners and homeowners to become financially free. We’ve built the modern alternative to Property Management that puts people first and is enabled by best-in-class technology and services. 

In 2023 we celebrated a major milestone in that journey as we expanded our world-first residential network, Belong PRO, in eighteen new regions across the country. Our top-rated, industry-busting services will change what it means to own a rental home in:

Because for the millions of homeowners and residents in these cities, things don’t always feel like fair competition. Especially when it comes to the housing market. People are going against massive corporations and hedge funds to secure a home to live in or rent out. And the property management industry has long perpetuated the idea that landlords must profit at the expense of tenants — and it’s time for that to stop. 

Welcome Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina! 

It's an especially exciting time to own a rental home in the Southeastern states and we're ready to help rental homeowners make the most of the opportunities that 2024 brings. After wage growth outpaced inflation in 2022, CNBC again ranked North Carolina the top state for business in 2023. Workers are flocking there to take advantage of this booming economy and growing operations of major companies like Apple and Bosch. Mix in desirable universities and you’ve got the perfect formula for attracting renters all year round. Georgia ranked 4th on the same list. 

A recent survey of industry experts also ranked Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, Austin, San Diego, San Antonio, Raleigh/Durham, Seattle, Houston, Denver, Charlotte, Miami as markets to watch in 2024. With all of these markets now on Belong PRO, you can reach your financial goals with our team taking care of everything.  

For homeowners, this means there’s never been a better time to rethink how your rental home is cared for. It’s time to join a modern alternative to property management that’s designed for rental homeowners of today, not decades past. We are making the terms landlords and tenants obsolete. By taking a more human-centric approach to housing, we can redefine the rental experience for both sides.  

Belong has a very different vision for the US housing market than the one that currently exists. This is why expanding our markets has been a key focus for our team across 2023 and into 2024. We want to address both sides of the housing crisis, giving homeowners the confidence to choose long-term renting and open their homes to residents. Every new region that we enter provides thousands of opportunities for people to get the rental experience and financial security they deserve,” says CEO of Belong, Ale Resnik.

This announcement is only the beginning. We have at least ten more markets in our sights. Learn more about the benefits of long-term renting here or visit our homeowner's page to find out more about how our services are helping people to ditch property management in Seattle, Redmond, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami and many more.

Belong is expanding to fix the rental experience for homeowners and residents in Florida, California, Washington, Utah, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina

Ready To Belong?

Before hunting the cheapest property management fees, check the fine print for 7 hidden costs that could be eroding your passive income and rental cash flow.

These 7 Hidden Property Manager Fees Are Costing Landlords Millions

Comparison shopping for property management fees can be a minefield. You may think you’re getting a great deal with a low management fee, only to pay more as the add-ons mount up. This is because traditional property management companies often hide their fees or charge for items that feel essential.

Excessive fees in rental housing has become such a problem that the Biden-Harris administration is taking on the issue to lower costs impacting rental housing. From 2024, landlords and property managers that try to slug residents for exorbitant application fees, late fees, admin fees or costs for services that aren’t provided, could find themselves in hot water if their local jurisdiction outlaws it. As a homeowner, you should be cautious of fees that could be unlawful or are costing your residents more than they can afford. 

The best way to protect yourself (and your residents) is to rent your home with full transparency. Either as a self-managing landlord or by partnering with a modern alternative to property management such as Belong PRO. 

If you’re ready to scrutinize what you’re really paying for, here are 7 common property management fees that get hidden in the fine print. 

Cheap property management fees are often accompanied by a long list of extra charges

Lease renewal fees penalize homeowners for having reliable long-term tenants

Some eviction protection fees cost homeowners more but don’t cover much more than legal filing costs

The White House is calling for more transparency in rental housing costs — something Belong already offers all homeowners and residents

How much does property management really cost? 

Property management fee structures are usually a percentage of the monthly rent, between 4% and 15%. But low percentage costs or even flat-rate fees often come with a long list of service exclusions. Homeowners should be aware of common extras that disguise the true cost of property management.  

Found a new property management company? Welcome, here’s your first invoice. Some property managers charge a one-time fee to cover your initial paperwork. This fee is also a disincentive to take your business elsewhere because you’ve already handed over cash before you’ve begun. It’s unlikely you’ll want to do the same again with someone else. 

Belong doesn’t charge setup or account fees because great customer service should keep you with us, not unnecessary fees. 

Homeowners who outsource property management should expect to pay a placement fee. This isn’t a hidden cost, but it’s a cost you should know upfront because it will vary, and as it can be up to 100% of the first month’s rent. 

In March 2023, the National Consumer Law Center found that 89% of renters surveyed were being charged application fees — anywhere from $25 to $350 — to cover the cost of processing and screening to apply for a property. This makes sense if you’re a self-managing landlord. But if your property management company is charging both you and your residents to screen them, this could be double-dipping and considered one of the “junk fees” that the White House is seeking to abolish. 

3. Advertising and online marketing fees 

Some property management companies charge fees for advertising and marketing your property. Or they include the cost of listing your home online, but charge for photography and video — even though your listing won’t get much attention without these basic essentials. Don’t assume these costs are in your placement fees without checking the fine print first.

Lease renewal can be similar in price to placement fees and are one of the more egregious types of hidden fees. It should be a goal to keep a great, reliable resident in place — not something that you’re penalized for financially. 

Discover Belong PRO: Learn how our modern, tech-enabled services are helping people ditch property management in cities across the US including Austin, San Antonio, Tampa, Raleigh/Durham, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Miami and more.

5. Eviction fees or ‘protection’ add-ons 

Managing an eviction is a complicated and stressful process. It’s one of the big things that homeowners want to outsource. But evictions are rarely covered in standard property management fees.

‘Eviction protection’ upgrades can be misleading. Not only does eviction protection increase your costs, most still charge for overseeing the eviction process, especially if attending court on your behalf. When we ranked the top-rated property management companies in California, we found that many eviction protection packages only cover filing fees. Or they impose strict limitations that can leave you out of pocket. 

If you choose to partner with Belong PRO, you’ll have real peace of mind and support. If Belong ever needs to evict a resident that we have chosen (not existing leases or tenants), Belong will cover legal costs up to $15,000. 

Vacancy fees penalize homeowners for having an empty home. Some property managers ask for one month's rent to compensate for their need to find a tenant for your property. Vacancy fees can also be a monthly cost charged to the homeowner for every month the unit does not have a tenant. In this case, that fee may start at $50 and can exceed $100. 

Does your property management contract have a length? You could face an early termination fee if you want to leave. Some contracts have a notice period, making it harder to take your business elsewhere. Before signing a contract, find out what happens if you're unhappy with your services. 

A transparent solution for modern renting

Traditional property management works in a way where your profit comes at the expense of the people who occupy your home. It’s not good for you and it’s not good for your residents. Belong gives rental homeowners an alternative. A rental home management partner that offers innovative solutions that make renting lovable. Tell us about your rental home now to get started. 

Welcome to The Playroom